MEDIATRACNET
A community workshops and Town hall meetings to sensitise and educate community members in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region on the country’s Energy Transition Plans (ETP) is being planned for Akwa Ibom and Delta States, Extractive360 has concluded.
T lhe organisers of the events said scheduled to hold in Abak, Akwa Ibom State on Thursday, February 2, 2023, and Warri, Delta State, on Thursday February 9, 2023, respectively.
The community interaction are part of the project titled; From ‘Exclusion to Inclusion in National Just Transition Plans,’ implemented in partnership with Spaces for Change (S4C), with support from Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP).
The Exclusion2Inclusion project is being implemented in five oil and gas rich States, including Delta, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Imo and Rivers .
Organisers said the meetings were aimed at integrating the perspectives of marginalised voices, such as women and artisanal refiners, into Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP).
During the events, the findings of a research conducted by the partners under the project, which was launched on December 9, 2022, with the title; ‘Energy Transition in Nigeria’s Oil-rich Communities,’ would be broken down and presented to community members. Furthermore, a simplified Handbook developed by Extractive360 which draws from the findings of the research, would also be formally unveiled and presented to participants and community members.
Copies of the simplified Handbook would be presented to select secondary schools in both Delta and Akwa Ibom States, to support science lessons.
Editor of Extractive360, Juliet Ukanwosu, said the objectives of the project was to support oil-rich community members to better understand what a Just Energy Transition means, how it would impact them, what alternative livelihood they want, what role they can play in the conversation as well as provide them with new knowledge and tools to push for redress for social and economic injustices associated with fossil-fuel extraction in their local settings from a rights-perspective.
“The community convening is part of efforts to create new spaces at the local levels for integrating the needs and priorities of marginalized voices in oil and gas-rich communities to take part in the deliberations as well as the implementation of the national just transition plans at the local and national level,” Ukanwosu added.
Expected at the events are Paramount Rulers, Village Chiefs, Community Leaders, women and youth leaders, artisanal refiners, students and other stakeholders.